[eskielover]

To start with, my blood pressure has always been very low or at least normal.....most of the time it was in the 90's / 60's. Just lately, it was mostly in the 100's/ 70's. I went to my pain specialist last week....it was a stressful drive there & I was running late.....when I got there they commented on my late arrival.....I knew I was 10 minutes late, but they told me my appointment was earlier than that & I was over 30 minutes late....I got the little card they gave me & proved that I was only 10 minutes late......well, when they took me back, & took my blood pressure, it was 143/93.

He actually made a comment on the high blood pressure & that I need make sure I monitor it. I actually blew it off to being a stressful day.......but realized that my heart has been pounding lately...not just the stress kind of pounding. I didn't think I ate anything that would actually cause me to hae high blood pressure......then the other day, I opened this package of wonderfully delicious hunny mustard pretzel pieces & over the day ended up eating the whole bag.......that was not the first time nor the last I had done that.......since I had found this yummy snack food, this has been my craving to sit & munch on while sitting at the computer.

I haven't gained any weight eating these things, but I realized that they have a high salt content & I had eaten several packages of them the week before my appointment. It was just since my last appointment with him that I found this munchy & have had the cravings for it that I have had....going through bag after bag.

I still had several bags left after I realized there might be the correlation between the salt & the blood pressure......I have slowed down my eating of them......but have now finished the last bag......think I will give that snack a break & see if it might make a change in my blood pressure reading when I go back to him in December.

I know I have heard that salt has a huge part in high blood pressure....that was the one thing my Dad had to cut down on in his diet with his high blood pressure. I never ate much salt in my diet before this......never salted my food with extra salt....always use herbs & spices more than salt.

Right now, it's only my supposing this is the reason for my blood pressure going so high....but it seemed like a logical reason when I stopped to think about it......sort of like the lightbulb came on when I opened a package of the munchies after getting home from the Dr's appointment. Will be interesting to see if it makes a change on the blood pressure reading the next time I go in. It won't guarantee that it wasn't just the stress of the day, but I have never had the stress of the day make my Blood pressure go that high either.

Wondering if anyone else has had a similar experience?

Debbie

[Aunt Donna]

Salt does influence your blood pressure along with other things. Stress and pain both make your blood pressure go up. Definitely a combination of the three will give you a high reading. I talk two different blood pressure medications a day. The one in morning has a fluid pill. The doctor I used before put my blood pressure down to white coat syndrome (fear of the doctor's office). I would get a headache each time I ate and worse ones if the food was real salty. A change in doctors made a world of difference. Also, do you drink diet soft drinks? Be careful of some artificial sweetners because they are high in sodium. Energy drinks are high in sodium, also. You will be surprised of the salt content of foods. Watch your blood pressure and your salt. Praying your blood pressure will be down your next doctor's visit.

[eskielover]

My pain is completely under control...since I have been on this dose of the medication (since November 2002), I haven't had a migraine headache. They were non-stop before that. As far as what I drink....the only thing I drink is milk....& I keep a mug of ice decaffinated tea that I brew myself with me all day & drink whenever I am thirsty.....one of my previous Dr's said that I needed to drink with this medication....probably due to the constipation it causes....never seem to have much problem with that...maybe because of all I drink.

Foods that I cook...I usually use very little salt if any...mostly herb seasoning...frozen foods may have more....I noticed that that one munchie that I got so hooked on has a huge amount of salt especially when eating the whole package of it.

Will be interesting to see if I quit eating that favorite munchie that will have any effect on the blood pressure......my stress is up right now.....but I have had even higher stress & have had low blood pressure with it.....never can tell with my body how it's going to react

[deliquesce]

high salt foods will definitely do it to you, especially if salt isn't a regular part of your diet!! i hope cutting this munchie out will help bring it under control.

the other thing that is good for managing high blood pressure is a bit of exercise - not anything strenuous, but a brisk walk for 20-30mins (so that you're slightly out of breath, but can still sing if someone asks you to!) is something important to consider also as an ongoing change in your lifestyle.

not sure if you already exercise, but if not it's something worth considering.

[VickiesPath]

I take Effexor ER and it causes my BP to spike. I have taken BP meds since I was 24 (very low doses) but the Effexor has been awful. We are now in the process of weaning me off of it.

I have found that the prepared foods we eat nowdays (both canned and frozen) do have more salt in them than we used to eat 15 or even 10 years ago. Big offender: frozen pizza. One thing that helps me is fresh fruit. It is a natural diuretic. If I feel the least bit bloated, I will eat fresh fruit, especially citrus, and in a couple days, I'm much better.